"So, what did you want to talk about, Miss Zenith?"

"Yes, and before we get to more pressing matters, your Imperial Royal-highness Miss Lady Zenith, would you like a dash of Alcudian refined sugar to go with your tea?

"Please, Emilia. You know I don't like to be called Miss. And stop that Kate."

Zenith knew it was going to be tough explaining her situation to the two of them without actually telling the truth. Emilia she half expected to be more polite, but Kate was just being over the top with her dramatics. She was even in an actual maid dress, and practically had a few bakeries worth of goods lined up along the side of her wall.

She huffed in displeasure. ‘Fine. If that's how Kate wants to act,’ she thought to herself, "...I'll take that sugar, Shopkeeper Kate. You can take the money out of the local business cophers."

"...okay. Would madam like one or two cubes of sugar?"

"Three pounds of sugar per cup."

"...I can spare three cubes," she whispered back.

Zenith could tell that Kate was cracking under the stress. Sugar was expensive! Three cubes were already more than she was willing to give away for free. That was profit flying out the window!

"Fou-"

"Okay! I give up! And I'll give you a quarter cube, just how you like it. Can't take a little joke?"

"A little joke? Those pastries must have cost a fortune! No, you bought them, didn't you?" Zenith looked over to Emilia, who was sipping her tea with grace.

“No, I did. I was using the leftover money I had sitting around since Xavier isn’t being tutored since his teacher went into hiding. He thinks it’s because he’s a bad student that his teacher left him to brave the world alone.”

“Stop guilting me, Kate. I just needed to take a few months off to lay low. And I did give you his whole curriculum the last time I stopped here, remember? When I had to get all those books from Emilia’s house.”

“You’ve been gone for almost a year now, Zenith. And it’s so hard to teach and be a shopkeeper. He’s helping me with the shop, you know. I saw you had that in the lesson plans so I skipped ahead.” Kate sighed dramatically. “He’s not quite good enough to manage the shop by himself, but he can at least inventory just as well as I can. But he’s not gaining an education like Tyler had.”

Zenith knew Kate wanted what was best for her kids, and she had been, no, was still a good teacher. She just didn’t have time for it. “I should be able to teach again soon. We had some things to prepare in the forest, just in case we had some uninvited visitors show up shortly. You guys should be careful as well.”

Kate chuckled rather nervously. “New people stopped coming by after you all holed up in the forest. Or rather, I should say after the tenth person who entered died.”

“Okay, those deaths can’t be blamed on us. How were we supposed to know they would find a couple of monster nests!? I mean, Sara and Nick have been combing through that forest for years now and we’ve never stumbled on any of those!”

Zenith was rather flustered about that accusation. They had been fine the entire time there, but as soon as other people started intruding on their peace, all hell broke loose. She knew that Paige and Nick were having trouble mapping out the place, but they all had been rather surprised at how many Monsters were actually living there.

Sure, she knew that was how Sara’s original party died after running into an elemental monster before. But she thought that was just a random coincidence. After all, a fire elemental monster in a forest? But no, ever since the scouts came in there had been no less than ten groups of elemental monsters that everyone had to fight. It was good practice for all of them, though even Boary had to jump in at some points to protect his precious clover patches from getting ruined from their battles; the lazy, gluttonous beast caring only for its food.

Hence, Zenith was probably the busiest of all of them. Not only did she have to reinforce the defenses around their little settlement deep in the woods, but she also had to recharge and repair the magic circles almost daily to offset all the monsters setting off the traps.

‘Though, if Paige could actually help out every once in a while…’ Zenith sighed. Why would Paige help out? She was having fun training Markus at the moment. Nick and Sara were solely focused on practicing Archery techniques against monsters, with Tyler there as backup for them. Even the two of them alone were pushing the boundaries of their luck, something she was reluctant to test.

Clearing her throat, Zenith remembered what she had originally come here for.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask if the two of you had plans for the spring harvest festival? Paige was thinking of hosting one in our little clearing. Were you planning on celebrating it here in Cidala?”

Emelia frowned. “We usually hold one on our estates with the rest of the Farmers. I can’t imagine they’d be willing to go to the forest to celebrate it, not if they have to bring their own produce for the season’s blessing.”

“I’m pretty sure Paige said she’d have more than enough for the blessing. She said just bring a handful of food for the blessing. Though I’m quite lost on the specifics of it. They hardly ever perform it in Appealte.”

“Hm? It’s not common there?”

“No, at least not where I was. Our school always assigned a lot of practical assignments, so our parties had to focus on those first.”

“Mhmm, your relatively small graduate school must have been torture,” Emilia spoke up.

Zenith paused. She had called Hall Academy small, didn’t she? “Um, relative to other schools, yes. Now, if you want to see a big school, the Mage Guild operates the largest practical training school in the country.”

“Zenith. We need to know. Do you have Lily and Tyler’s best interest in mind?”

“...what brought that to mind, Emilia?”

“Kate and I know you aren’t an Imperial Consort,” Emilia shook her hand, “and you don’t need to explain anything. You have a wardstone, Zenith. That means you have to at least be a servant of some type or a confidante of some kind. And make sure you keep it on, otherwise your cover really will be blown.”

“Do you even know what that stone represents, Zenith?” Kate asked as she leaned in to look at the stone as Zenith reluctantly put the necklace back on.

“Of course I do, but it’s not like I have to wear this stupid thing all the time!”

“Don’t let anyone hear you say that!” Emilia looked around nervously.

Zenith shrugged. She had already made sure no one was listening to their discussion.

“It’s fine. And I really do care about them, you know. Nothing bad will happen to them, I promise.”

“And if something bad does happen…” Kate asked quietly.

“...We’ll fix it. No matter what happens, Kate. We’ll fix it.”

Zenith sighed. Of course, it would take more work to gain back their trust, but at least the two of them were not totally mad at their whole group.

“So, Kate, Emilia; would you like to come to our harvest festival? Paige is going all out with it, apparently.”

“I’d love to go.” Kate smiled brightly. “But are you sure the forest will be safe for us?”

“Mhmm. It will be. We’ve already started going out and clearing the area, and Paige already said Boary would be patrolling the area if you guys came.” Zenith nodded heavily. Paige would keep her word about that. She was quite happy to plan this festival, after all, and as she said, the more the merrier.

“Umm, so how are you two?”

It would take a while, but Zenith was sure she’d gain their trust back.

Settling into the semi-comfortable wagon, Shavie waited for Bishner to move before she started asking questions. “Are you sure this is the right way, Bishner? And why the hell would they pick a forest to hide in?”

Hiding in a forest was usually bad for several reasons; the main one being a lack of reliable and swift information. Thus, for anyone to choose a remote location like that had to have either some kind of information exchange or a way of entering and leaving unhindered and unwatched.

Still, looking around at the farmland and open plains, it would be almost impossible for someone to move secretly.

Bishner nodded as he looked at his map. “This is the right area. And besides, even if it’s not the right area, we still need to go there to grab Stella’s ingredients. She’s running out of that moss, and supposedly the forest is stock full of it. Though, why she even feels the need to keep the wards running full time is beyond me.”

He looked around the open field with a grimace. “And Shavie, you should know better than to judge our enemies like that. They aren’t any random adventurers. Each one is a High Class. If they chose that forest, then it was because it had something they needed.

“Besides, the open field helps them as well. If they have a Tracker or someone with the related Skills, even we would be hard-pressed to enter secretly. The lack of information is hardly a moot point in comparison.”

“Sure, but it sucks that we have to travel over here to this godforsaken land. We should’ve just gone ahead to Evidia instead, but no,” Shavie drawled. “No, your stupid wards couldn’t keep the man unconscious long enough for me to get any useful information on Trent.”

“I wouldn’t say that. We got plenty of good information. At least we know when the war is expected to start again. That’s something. And we know that everyone but Luna can leave Nespe now.”

“Bah. We would’ve tested that anyway. But we don’t know if Isabella can leave, which is the main problem! Now, Stella is worried about everything and wants us to go stockpile for war!” Shavie threw her hands up, watching the fields of grass all around them sway in the wind.

“How about this, Bishner? Why not just go and kidnap the Mage? I mean, we already know that she leaves the forest to teach.”

“Used to leave. She only leaves sporadically now. It’s hardly worth the effort for one of us to stay here for more than a few days. And if the forest is as dangerous as they claim, then-”

“You actually believe that there are Elemental level monsters in there? Ten, no twenty gold says that their team is killing them and dumping their bodies so that monsters can find them. We both know we could fake a murder like that.”

Bishner hesitated. “No bet. That shopkeeper was certain there are Elemental monsters in there. I bet that their Party has hunkered down with magic circles. That would be the easiest option, especially if all of the necessary ingredients can be found within the forest.”

“Hrmmm...” Shavie tapped her chin as the cart steadily strode forward. She knew they could make it there faster by walking, since it was a good hour or two by wagon, but it was worth it to keep their actual abilities hidden. And she didn’t have anything to do in the meantime. “Whatever, just wake me when we get there. I assume you can handle a few Scouts by yourself. Or do you want me to do the heavy lifting around here?”

“Tch. If I can handle Devils on my own, I can handle a few Human Scouts,” Bishner waved haughtily. “You can rest, Assassin. Just remember your cover story.”

“I know how to lie, Bishner. Don’t worry about that.”

She settled down, lying prone on the cart as it steadily moved forward.

‘Tch, if I were to tell my past self that I’d be riding a cart instead of sprinting, I think I’d kill myself. And since when do Assassins have to use cover stories? Oh, how I’ve fallen.’

Shavie thought about her status. Bodyguard. Similar to Assassins, she supposed, but not really. Though she hated to admit it, she knew she was having fun with all her side projects. Starting her own gang, smuggling illicit goods, making money; all while being able to move openly. Sure, there were a few close calls, but her knowledge of the darker side of society helped in those cases.

‘Still, a cart is relatively comfortable.’ Shavie thought to herself as she started drifting to sleep. ‘My life...isn’t all bad...now..’

---

“Wake up,” Bishner called quietly.

Shavie opened her eyes swiftly and scanned her surroundings. She frowned at the sight of the forest in front of her. Well, far, far, in front of her. Bishner had stopped almost a full mile away from the forest.

“Why on earth did you stop this far away?” Frowning in displeasure, she sat next to Bishner, who was staring hard at the forest in front of her.

“Try taking a step forward,” he said lightly as he pulled the reins tightly, the horses obligingly backing up away from the forest ahead.

“...”

Taking a glance at Bishner’s frown, she lightly jumped from the cart and stood where the wagon had just been. Taking a glance at her surroundings with a more critical eye, she noted that there were no traps or obstructions on the dusty road, though all of the weathered tracks were headed into the forest and only a few heading back into town.

‘What is he worried about? No monster tracks and none of my skills are going off yet. So-’ Taking a step forward, Shavie focused on her surroundings. Nothing was moving as she picked her foot up and was about to put her foot down -.

Death

She hopped backward on one foot, her eyes narrowing as she looked for the source of her feelings. ‘What was-’

“You should be careful going into these woods, you two. A lot of people have died recently, what with the monsters and all.” A voice called out to them from just beyond another hill, as a young woman walked forward.

Shavie turned and stared at the girl in front of her, inwardly shocked that she hadn’t been able to notice her.

The girl’s blue overalls were heavily stained with dirt but she noted that they were roughly the same pattern as Lily’s clothes, though her overalls were very open and exposed on the sides and the back, judging by how the straps were pulled back behind her shoulders. Her gloves were well worn, while her dirty hoe was resting on her shoulders.

Her blue eyes blinked concernedly at her. “I mean it, I think something like ten people has already died, and they even had to call the guards to rescue a few people from the elder monsters inside the forest.

“You mean there really are monsters in there?” Shavie asked bewildered. She turned to Bishner and angrily waved her hand. “You said nothing about me protecting you from Elemental level monsters!.”

‘Stick to my cover story,’ she thought as she observed the Farmer in front of her. The girl was weird.

“I thought that was just local lore! Besides, we only need to grab some alcudian moss for our client, and then we’ll leave.”

“Alcudian moss? What do you need that for?” The Farmer asked skeptically. “How about some wheat? Now, I have lots of wheat here, and my boss could probably cut you a pretty good deal, with her owning most of this land anyway,” the Farmer waved at the land around her.

“Is this land owned by the Thompson Family? I had no idea they owned all of this as well.”

“Mhmm, the Army needs food after all, and no one’s using it on account of it being close to these woods.”

“And you are farming here because…” Bishner fished for information. Shavie knew something was wrong with the girl in front of her.

“Because it pays three times as much. Heck, it’s almost as much as battlefield pay, assuming you survive to cash in,” she chuckled quietly.

“... you know Tyler Madson, don’t you?” Bishner asked suddenly.

The Farmer stilled slightly. “...oh? You know little Tyler? How’s he doing in school?”

“He’s part of our client's party. He’s a good customer too.”

“...huh. Good for him.”

Shavie blinked at the farmer girl. This was the Farmer Conscript that Tyler had trained under. Was she… “So, Miss…”

“Paige. Or Farmer Paige, if you’d like.” Paige smiled as she held out her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Paige. So, being a Farmer and all, would you happen to know where we could get some moss? Or at least somewhere safer than going into that forest?” Shavie walked up and shook her hand, ignoring the warning she was getting in her gut. She had to play her part perfectly, or else her cover would be blown.

Paige shook her hand lightly and smiled. “You can ask some of the local hunters in the area if you want. They should know where most of the monster nests are, and can probably do it for cheap, all things considering. Your life is the most valuable thing one can own, after all, so a few gold coins are piddly in comparison.”

“True. Very true. Thank you for the warning, Farmer Paige. We owe you our lives, at the very least, for the warning,” Bishner walked forward and grabbed the Farmer’s hand, shaking it profusely.

“No problem… Can you send a message to little Tyler for me? I can pay a few copper coins if I need to. Merchants don’t come this way often, as you can imagine, and it’s a full day wasted if I try to walk to Cidala from here just to send a message.”

“Sure, and no charge for you. What would you like to send?”

“Ask him to come and visit me sometime. And his girlfriend, if they’re still together. I want to see how much the school has actually taught him. Nothing can beat tried and true battle worthy moves, in my opinion.”

“Haha, we can do that. Take care, Farmer Paige!”

Shavie and Bishner turned and walked to the cart, their bodies relaxed as they noticed the Farmer just watching them.

“Wait, what are your names? I forgot to ask that.”

“I’m Bishner. An appraiser. Gotta make sure the Alcudian moss is the real deal, after all. And this is my hired bodyguard, Shavie,” Bishner shouted as he turned the cart around to go back to town.

“Hm. Nice to meet you both! Have a safe trip back!” Paige waved as they left, and continued waving until they were both out of sight.

“...”

Shavie and Bishner stiffened, pulling out their weapons. This would be the perfect time for an ambush, they both knew from experience.

But... nothing. As far as they could tell, no one was following, listening or spying on them. Shavie shook her head and relaxed as nothing came to fruition.

“Looks like we’ve found our enemies, Bishner. Should we ask about Markus?”

“...no. We’ll ask in the town about it. Someone would have to know if they’ve seen him.”

---

'...the scouts are getting better at disguises. Still, can't do much if I don't have proof.'

Paige kicked the ground and frowned as the bodyguard and merchant quickly left the area. She looked down and eyed the line of fog separating her from the outside world. Tapping the boundary with her hoe, the metal quickly scorched in response as the mana within the hoe violently reacted against the fog.

“...Six steps. I could’ve captured both if they walked just six more steps inside the barrier. They must have some type of intuition-based skill. No, probably a greater intuition skill. Ugh, I hate Scouts that have that!”

‘Merchant Bishner and Bodyguard Shavie. Not a bad cover story. Maybe Nick and Tyler could spin it that way? Or would that raise more questions?’

Waiting for a moment longer, she could tell that the cart was leaving at a steady pace, heading back toward Cidala. She kicked the dirt and turned around, heading back into the forest to train Markus.

‘Either way, they both knew Tyler and Lily. Hopefully, the kids will come back soon. I have some questions for them…’